Team India Squad for T20 world cup

The BCCI senior selection panel under the chairmanship of Krishnamachari Srikkanth met today to pick team India squad for T20 world cup. The selection of squad put an end to hullabaloo over Sachin’s inclusion in team.

Vinay Kumar, who has been in superb form in the ongoing Indian Premier League, was the only new face in the squad to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Karnataka pacer was rewarded for his consistent domestic performance. He finished Ranji season with 46 wickets, and currently playing in IPL-2010 for Royal Challengers Bangalore and is joint-second on the wicket-takers column and is one of the strong contenders for purple cap.

Another relatively new face is Piyush Chawla. He is selected as second spinner ahead of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and leg-spinner Amit Mishra. With Harbhajan, all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and Jadeja in line-up he is unlikely to feature in playing 11. And if gets a chance it will be a huge opportunity for him as he last played for India during the 2008 Asia Cup in Pakistan.

Apart from inclusion of these two players selectors have stuck to tried and tested combination despite injury concerns and poor form of key players in IPL – 3. Opener Gautam Gambhir, is sitting out of IPL and is recovering from a hamstring injury is part of the squad. As is injured left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra, After all who can forget Gambhir’s heroic effort against Pakistan in finals of inaugural T-20 world cup, we hope both Gambhir and Nehra recover in time and play for team India.

Left outs: -

Save for Vinay Kumar, performance in IPL has not had much of a bearing on selection for the World T20 team. Virat Kohli who was in ODI squad agaist South Africa last month has been left out. Young talent Rohit Sharma got yet another chance ahead of in-form Manish Pandey and Uthappa. I believe Manish Pandey should have been preferred over Rohit Sharma. He is good nick and we can use him as back up option for Gambhir.

Out of form Pacers Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth and RP Singh, who were in the provisional 30-member list, failed to figure in final squad.

The tournament will be played in West Indies immediately after IPL 3, in April end and May.  Team India is in group C along with South Africa and Afghanistan. They will play their first game on 1^st April against Afghanistan.

The complete squad consists of:

MS Dhoni (captain & wicket keeper), Virender Sehwag (Vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma

Probable playing XI: –

In my opinion 10 players Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina,  Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra will feature in most of the matches and there will be tough competition for 11^th spot among Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma.

We wish Team India a good luck and hope they repeat the history and bring back the glory like they did in 2007.

P.S: - Wonder in the absence of Joginder Sharma who will bowl the last over in close games.

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